AT&T still on the fence about filtering

AT&T is still trying to make up its mind if it wants to start examining traffic on its network in an attempt to try to curb the use of its network in illegal sharing of copyrighted material. Comcast has a full scale revolt on its hands over its use of traffic shaping and filtering, and if AT&T chooses to head down this path they too could wind up with a lot of angry consumers.

While CEO, Randall Stephenson, is quoted as saying, “It’s like being in a store and watching someone steal a DVD,” the bottom line is that not all peer-to-peer traffic is being used for illegal purposes.

The bigger issue is whether an Internet Service Provider has the right to block traffic to sites that it thinks are engaged in illegal purposes. Should your ISP act as big brother to determine what content is acceptable and what is not? This is something that is not going to be settled in the short term. Look for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to challenge an ISP’s big brother abilities in the near future.